Adding to the mystery is a video posted on Youtube that shows two friends coming across the patterns after seeing green lights emanate from a field.

A representative from local Echelon Security Co. told the San Jose Mercury News he was hired to protect the land from rowdiness, but could not provide the identity of the landowner. A spokesperson for Echelon declined to provide further comment to ABC News.

A rescue mission to evacuate scientists, tourists and journalists from a ship trapped in ice off Antarctica has passed off smoothly, with 52 people removed from the stricken vessel.

A helicopter sent from the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long landed next to the trapped Akademik Shokalskiy on Thursday afternoon and the first group of passengers were evacuated shortly after 8pm local time (7am GMT). The passengers were taken off in five groups, with two further flights to pick up their baggage. Each flight took around 20 minutes each way.

Four expedition staff were the last to leave the trapped ship. The Russian crew who will remain aboard to free the ship when the ice around it breaks up – hopefully when there is a change in wind direction in a few days.

The original plan had been to take the passengers to the Xue Long, but it was later decided to airlift them to an ice floe near the icebreaker Aurora Australis, which had tried but failed to break through to the trapped ship earlier this week.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which has been co-ordinating the rescue tweeted: "Aurora Australis has advised AMSA that the 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy are now on board."

Expedition leader Prof Chris Turney tweeted: "We've made it to the Aurora australis safe & sound. A huge thanks to the Chinese & @AusAntarctic for all their hard work!"

The passengers were greeted on the Australian vessel with tea and coffee plus dinner. They will also have to get used to moving five time zones westwards because the Aurora australis is operating on west coast Australia time (Western Standard Time), rather than the New Zealand time zone.

Guardian journalist Alok Jha who is one of the evacuees tweeted "To the crew of Aurora Australis and Xue Long - heartfelt thanks from all on the Shokalskiy. We know how far out of your way you all went."

AMSA released a statement at 12.45 pm on Thursday saying the safest option was to do the rescue mission in one operation."AMSA understands that current sea ice conditions prevent the barge from Aurora Australis from reaching the Chinese vessel Xue Long (Snow Dragon) and a rescue may not be possible today," a spokeswoman said.

"The Xue Long's helicopter is unable to land on the Aurora Australis due to load rating restrictions. It is not safe to land the helicopter next to Aurora Australis at this time.

"The preferred and safest option at this stage is to ultimately transfer the passengers onto Aurora Australis."

Guardian journalist Alok Jha, who was on the Akademik Shokalskiy, earlier said the mood was subdued but optimistic and people had kept themselves busy. "If there is any anger/upset etc I haven't seen any," he said in an email.

"I imagine some people have had private moments of anxiety or frustration but there's no feeling of threat or any worry about danger. No one seems scared."

The Akademik Shokalskiy became stuck in thick pack ice on Christmas Eve and the Aurora Australis and Xue Long, which are both ice breakers, had to abandon attempts to reach the trapped ship.

An attempt on New Year's Day to evacuate the passengers by helicopter was also abandoned because of heavy rain, strong winds and cloud.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

-RONALD REAGAN

EqualizerGuest

Re: Stuff & Nonsense« Reply #9757 on: Jan 2nd, 2014, 5:32pm »

It was a Great New Years Party and to have held it here on Crystals Thread..well truth be told..That makes her the UCB Person of The Year for 2013..because indeed to keep ones head above the sometimes turbulent forces that would render us all apart.and keep it it interesting without asking..everyone contribute to it...several hundred pages Takes a very very muy special person.

« Last Edit: Jan 2nd, 2014, 5:36pm by Equalizer »

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EqualizerGuest

Re: Stuff & Nonsense« Reply #9758 on: Jan 2nd, 2014, 7:45pm »

Scientists prove it is possible to levitate and move objects in mid air using only sound

Federal authorities said today there has been no “unusual flight activity” in California despite a flurry of reports by civilians in several cities who believe they saw strange lights in the sky on New Years morning.

“I seen like six bright orange colored lights,” Kaye Pinlac of Stockton told ABCNews affiliate News 10. “They were almost like in a diamond or triangle shape. It was weird. And so they started just separating.” Pinlac captured a video of the lighted object on his iPhone.

More witnesses across California reported similar sightings around the same time, including from Sacramento and Auburn.

“Well, we saw it right through the trees,” Steven Brown from Sacramento told News 10.

“It was bright enough to shine directly through the trees without any problem seeing it,” he said. “Whatever it was moved up and to the left… It hovered there for probably about 60 seconds, then it took off at a high rate of speed.”

Auburn residents Terry and Hans Mauth told News 10 described similar sightings that happened on New Year’s Eve. “No sound, no blinking lights, just this big illuminated form,” said Terry Mauth.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said there were no reports of UFOs.

Fears grow for icebreaker involved in Antarctic rescue of Russian research ship

APJan 3, 2014

CANBERRA – An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic was told to halt its journey home Friday after a Chinese vessel involved in the dramatic rescue became concerned that it, too, may become stuck in the heavy sea ice.

The icebreaker Aurora Australis had been slowly cracking through thick ice toward open water after a Chinese helicopter Thursday plucked the passengers from their stranded Russian research ship and carried them to the Aurora.

But on Friday afternoon, the crew of the Chinese icebreaker that provided the helicopter said they were worried about their own ship’s ability to move through the ice. The Aurora — which was carrying the passengers to the Australian island state of Tasmania — was told to stay in the area in case the Snow Dragon needed assistance, according to the Rescue Coordination Center of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which oversaw the rescue.

The Snow Dragon, which is at the edge of the ice pack surrounding the Russian vessel, will attempt to push through the ice to open water Saturday. The Aurora is waiting around 11 km north of the Snow Dragon, said Lisa Martin, spokeswoman for the marine authority.

The agency said the decision to place the Aurora on standby was a precaution and noted there was no danger to anyone on board the Snow Dragon. But it was yet another wrinkle in the highly complex rescue operation of those on board the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which got stuck in the ice on Christmas Eve.

A spot of clear weather Thursday finally allowed the multinational rescue operation after blinding snow, strong winds and thick sea ice forced rescuers to turn back time and again. The twin-rotor helicopter, which is based on the Snow Dragon, took seven hours to carry the scientists and tourists in groups of 12 from the Russian ship to the Aurora. Earlier, the passengers had linked arms and stomped out a landing site in the snow next to the Russian ship for the helicopter.

Helicopter pilot Jia Shuliang told China’s official Xinhua News Agency that he had no way of knowing whether the ice could withstand the helicopter’s weight. The rescue came in the never-ending daylight of summer after days of failed attempts to reach the vessel.

“I think everyone is relieved and excited to be going on to the Australian icebreaker and then home,” expedition leader Chris Turney told The Associated Press by satellite phone from the Antarctic.

Sydney resident Joanne Sim, a paying passenger, wept as she boarded the Australian icebreaker. She said the passengers had spent their time watching movies and playing games. “It really has been an emotional rollercoaster,” she told a reporter from The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper who is aboard the ship.

The 22 crew members of the Akademik Shokalskiy stayed with the icebound vessel, which is not in any danger and has enough supplies on board to last for weeks. They will wait until the ice surrounding the ship breaks up, which could take several weeks, AMSA Emergency Response Division manager John Young said.

“Only now am I sort of feeling a bit emotional about leaving the Shokalskiy,” Alok Jha, a journalist from The Guardian newspaper who is traveling with the Akademik Shokalskiy, said in a video shot before he boarded the helicopter. “The poor old thing is stuck still.”

The cost of the rescue would be carried by the owners of the ships and their insurers, in accordance with international conventions on sea rescues, Young said. Any official inquiry into how the ship got stuck would have to be conducted by Russia.

The Akademik Shokalskiy, which left New Zealand on Nov. 28, became stuck after a blizzard pushed sea ice around the ship, freezing it in place about 2,700 km south of Hobart, Tasmania. The scientific team on board the vessel had been retracing Australian explorer Douglas Mawson’s 1911-1913 voyage to Antarctica.